Swanson TV Dinner Tray

The TV dinner represented a change in the way Americans were thinking about food. Introduced in 1954 by Swanson & Sons, of Omaha, Nebraska, it offered women--more and more of whom were working outside the home but still assumed to be responsible for cooking--an alternative to time-consuming meal preparations. The prepackaged TV dinner appealed to busy families because it required little time or effort and yet provided a well-balanced, nutritious meal.